Chapter 7 - The Woman in White
Valeria called from a number Laura didn’t recognize.
Laura almost declined.
Then she heard the voice.
“Please don’t hang up.”
“Give me one reason.”
“Because he’s telling me the same things he told you.”
Laura stood at Elena’s kitchen window.
Outside, a delivery driver was arguing with a parking meter.
Ordinary life kept happening.
It felt insulting.
“What things?”
“That you’re unstable. That the files are private. That I’ll ruin both of us if I talk.”
“You were holding him by the pool.”
“I know.”
“You took money.”
“I know that too.”
Laura waited.
Valeria’s breath shook.
“I thought you knew he could walk.”
“Everyone seems to have thought that.”
“He said the marriage was over. He said you stayed because you were fighting over the house.”
“And you believed him.”
“Yes.”
Laura could have ended the call.
Part of her wanted to.
Instead, she said, “Meet me at Nora Bennett’s office. Bring whatever you have.”
Valeria arrived that afternoon without the white dress.
Without the polished smile.
She carried a canvas bag and kept checking the street.
Nora sat in on the conversation.
Laura didn’t offer coffee.
“When did you first see him walk?”
“The first day.”
“When?”
“Seven months ago.”
“Did you ever ask why he used the chair around me?”
Valeria looked down.
“Yes.”
“What did he say?”
“That seeing him helpless made you less angry about the separation.”
Laura gave a short, empty laugh.
“Convenient.”
“I should have asked you.”
“You should have.”
Valeria took out her phone.
There were messages.
Marcos complaining about Laura.
Marcos promising a different life.
Marcos reminding Valeria never to arrive before Laura left.
Then there was a photograph of a reservation.
Two passengers.
A flight departing the following Thursday.
Marcos and Valeria.
One-way tickets.
Laura read the date.
Her wedding anniversary.
“He told me the house sale would close before we left,” Valeria said.
Laura looked up.
“What house sale?”
Valeria’s face changed.
“You didn’t know?”
Nora reached for the phone.
On the attached document was an agreement to sell the villa.
Laura’s name appeared beneath Marcos’s.
So did her signature.
“I didn’t sign that,” Laura said.
Nora checked the proposed closing date.
Thursday morning.
Six days away.
Then Valeria opened one final message.
If she gets difficult, I have paperwork proving she can’t manage her own affairs.
Laura read it twice.
For two years, she had believed the wheelchair was the lie.
May you like
Now she understood.
It was only the beginning.
